


The Power of Belief

by Cobralingus



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Everything is Dancing, F/M, Minor Character Death, adult sarah, back to the labyrinth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 03:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9366902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cobralingus/pseuds/Cobralingus
Summary: When Toby's son wishes for the goblins to take his baby away, Sarah, now an old woman, finds herself back in the Labyrinth.





	

“And as they crept in through the gates, all the piles of scrap metal scattered in front of them started moving. They crawled together until they had formed an enormous metal monster. The young girl blanched with fear as the creature raised its axe to attack them.”

 

“What does ‘blanched’ mean, Aunt Sarah?”

 

“It means to turn white, sweetie.”

 

Michael smiled as he listened to his favourite aunt tell bedtime stories to her great-nieces. He’d grown up listening to her tales about goblins and magical mazes full of traps and moving walls, and it made him happy knowing his girls would share his wonderful memories.

 

He tapped on the doorframe. 

 

“Sorry to interrupt, ladies. I’m heading out to work and I need some good-night kisses before I go.”

 

Molly and Jessie leapt from their beds and ran to their father. He knelt down to them and kissed them both, making them giggle as he blew raspberries on their cheeks.

 

“You be good tonight,” he said. “No pillow fights, no books after lights-out, and no begging Aunt Sarah for ‘just one more story’ until midnight.”

 

Molly sat up and exclaimed, “But Daddy, the girl is in the goblin city! There’s a monster! We need to know what happens next!”

 

“What happens next is you’ll get no stories for a week if you stay up too late,” Michael said sternly. “Your teacher wasn’t very happy about you two dozing off during science class yesterday.”

 

The girls looked at each other guiltily, remembering their classmates laughing as Mr Green woke them up. Sarah put her hands on the girls’ shoulders and replied, “I’ll make sure they get to sleep. You better hurry or you’ll be late. I hear hospitals don’t like late nurses any more than teachers like sleepy little girls.”

 

Michael smiled at that, and as he left he called back to Sarah, “The baby’s in bed already and I fed him.”

 

\---

 

Sarah moved slowly around the room, picking up toys and putting books back on shelves. The girls had fallen asleep not long after their father had gone to work, worn out from school and dance class and running around with their little brother Toby. She still flinched sometimes when one of the girls called out his name. He looked so much like his grandfather had as a baby. Michael had insisted on the name, since he was born so soon after Toby passed away.  _ Her  _ Toby. Her baby brother. The one she’d suffered danger and hardship for. The one she’d always been able to save, right up until he’d had a heart attack and died, too far from help to be resuscitated.

 

She’d moved in with Michael and his wife when Toby was born. Penny had had a hard pregnancy, and when she died a few weeks later from an infection, it had been Sarah who’d fed and changed the baby. Sarah who’d seen to the funeral arrangements. Sarah who made sure the girls had clean clothes and packed lunches for school. Sarah who held her heartbroken nephew as he raged against an unfair God who’d taken his father and wife away from him.

 

“It’s not fair, Michael,” she had whispered as his anger turned to tears. “It’s not fair, and it’s not okay, but that’s the way it is.” She had rocked him hour after hour, just as she had when he was a baby and her Toby couldn’t cope with the screams of a colicky infant. And she told the grieving girls stories about goblins and magic and how you could always find your way through the dark and frightening places if you asked the right questions and didn’t take anything for granted.

 

They’d gotten through it, and Sarah had unexpectedly found herself with a home and children to look after. Jessie had asked her that very morning why she didn’t have a husband like all the other aunts she knew. 

 

“I met someone once. He would have given me the moon if I’d asked for it.”

 

“You can’t give someone the moon, Aunt Sarah. It’s up in the sky, and it’s too big to pick up, anyway.”

 

Sarah had smiled at her prosaic great-niece. “Someday, sweetie, you might be lucky enough to meet a nice man or woman who would change their whole world just to make you happy. If you do, you’ll understand what I mean about the moon.”

 

Jessie had wrinkled her nose in confusion. “But if you met someone like that, why didn’t you marry him? Was he ugly or mean or something?”

 

“He wasn’t ugly, no. He was the most beautiful man I ever saw. But he could be cruel, and I was scared. And back then, I had more important things to worry about than marrying someone.”

 

“Couldn’t you marry him now?”

 

“No, sweetie,” she had answered, shaking her head sadly. “I’m too old, and he lives far away. I couldn’t get there even if he still wanted me.”

 

Jessie had gone to school unconvinced. 

 

And so Sarah sat up with her great-nephew Toby, listening to him snuffling in his crib. She held her old bear, Lancelot, cuddled in her lap. She needed to hold something but didn’t want to wake Toby after he’d finally fallen asleep. It was hard thinking about Jareth, even after all those years had passed.

 

Sarah couldn’t tell Jessie about the lovers she’d had as a young woman. She’d gone looking for love, expecting to find a beautiful, powerful, assured man to drive away the memory of the Goblin King. She’d found boys, too drunk on cheap beer and testosterone to remember her name. She’d found cocky, power-hungry men who wanted an accessory to make them look good. And time after time she’d found herself rescuing her little brother from whatever mess he’d ended up in, whether it was bailing him out of jail after a bar fight or practically raising his son for him. 

 

No, there had been more important things to do than get married.

 

Sarah dozed in the rocking chair. Michael only had two more nights before a weekend off, and then they’d all have the joy of helping him readjust to day shifts. She hoped she’d be able to keep his temper directed at her. The last time he’d had a shift change he’d ended up shouting at the girls over something ridiculous, and it had taken her a month to convince them that he still loved them.

 

\---

 

Sarah sat up in bed, heart pounding. Something had woken her up. Something terribly wrong. She pulled her robe around her and shuffled down the hallway to the girls’ bedroom. They were both fast asleep, Jessie snoring gently and Molly half-hidden in the pile of books she insisted on bringing to bed with her. Smiling, Sarah pulled the door closed and turned to Michael’s room. The light was on.

 

The light shouldn’t have been on.

 

She didn’t bother knocking as she pushed the door open. Michael was sitting on the edge of his bed, head in his hands. The room looked as though it had been burgled: drawers pulled open, lampshades askew, furniture overturned. Michael looked up at her, grey and defeated.

 

“Toby’s gone.”

 

“ _ What _ ?” Sarah half-shrieked, before rushing to the crib. She ripped back the bedding, afraid Michael’s temper had finally overcome his self-control, terrified she was going to find her great-nephew’s body. 

 

She found nothing.

 

“Where is he, Michael?”

 

“I told you, Aunt Sarah. He’s gone. As in not here anymore.”

 

Sarah found herself suddenly on the floor as her legs gave way underneath her. This couldn’t be happening again. Not to Toby. “What have you done, Michael?”

 

Her nephew scrubbed at his face with his hands before answering, “He wouldn’t stop crying. I was holding him, bouncing him, singing that fucking song over and over again, but he just wouldn’t stop crying. And I’m so tired, Aunt Sarah. I just needed him to go to sleep so I could go to sleep.”

 

“Michael. What. Have. You. Done.”

 

“I put him in his crib and went to the bathroom to get some water. He stopped crying. When I came back, he was gone.”

 

Sarah closed her eyes as the room spun around her. “You wished, didn’t you. You wished for the goblins to come and take him away.”

 

Michael looked down at her in shock. “How did you know that?”

 

“They weren’t just stories, Michael. I wished they would come and take your father away when he was a baby, and they did.” Sarah climbed unsteadily to her feet, leaning on the crib through a wave of dizziness. “And now you’ve wished away your son. The difference is, I had the courage to go get my Toby back.”

 

\---

 

Sarah sat at her vanity mirror, searching for a vestige of the girl she used to be in the wrinkled face looking back at her. She and Michael had argued for hours before she left him to wallow in his self-pity. Jareth wasn’t going to come flying into Michael’s room and offer him his dreams in exchange for the baby. Michael didn’t have any dreams left.

 

But Sarah did.

 

She stared at herself in the mirror, carefully  _ not looking  _ at the edges and corners, and thought about her oldest friends. They’d promised to come if she ever needed them. The question was, did she need them now? Or was this, like her final conversation with the Goblin King, something she had to do alone?

 

She packed a bag this time. A knife. Trinkets to pay for advice. Food. Lots of food. She knew better than to eat anything she might find in the goblin kingdom, especially after what had happened the last time. A hat. Sarah had known how important hats could be when she was young, and she was determined not to be caught without one this time. One last look around her room and she was ready.

 

“I wish the goblins would come and take me away right now.”

 

The last thing she heard was the clock beginning to strike midnight.

\---

 

Sarah groaned as someone rolled her over. She blinked owlishly, trying to focus in the suddenly bright light. There was someone there.

 

“Oh. It’s you.”

 

That voice… “ _ Hoggle _ ?” She pushed herself upright and squinted until his face swam into the right place. It was him. Sarah felt the glimmer of a smile touching her lips for the first time in what seemed like forever.

 

The smile disappeared as her dearest friend started walking away from her.

 

“Hoggle? Wait, come back!”

 

The dwarf didn’t turn, but he paused. “You didn’t call, Sarah. We were waiting for you to call us.  _ I  _ was waiting. Jareth gave me one of his crystals and I watched you every single day, but you never called me. And now you just show up and you want to pick up where you dropped me?”

 

“But I…”

 

“I know. They took Toby. You need to get through the Labyrinth and get him back. We’ve done this before, Sarah. And we all know you’re going to rescue the baby, go back to your own world, and leave this one even more broken than you did the last time. Well, there’s the entrance to the Labyrinth. Go. Save the day. Be a hero. I’m sure you remember the way.”

 

He trudged away, even more bowed than she had remembered.

 

“Oh, and I don’t recommend falling into the oubliette this time. You’d probably break a hip.”

 

\---

 

This was all wrong. She hadn’t meant to break anything, certainly not Hoggle’s heart. She’d had things to worry about. Responsibilities. She picked her way carefully through the debris on the outermost passage of the Labyrinth, trying to figure out what she might have done that would have damaged somewhere as magical as the Goblin Kingdom.

 

There was more debris than she remembered. And hadn’t the walls sparkled before? She could see the side passages now, their hidden edges imperfect and obtrusive. She walked slowly, trying to find the tiny Worm’s house. She’d always regretted not taking the time to meet his wife. A tiny sliver of red caught her eye and she knelt down to look more closely. It looked like the fringe of his scarf.

 

“Mr Worm? Are you there?”

 

Silence.

 

“Mrs Worm? Anyone?”

 

She waited a few moments before pulling gently on the miniscule scarf. A dry rustling sent a shiver down her spine as the Worm’s empty husk skittered across the bricks and into her waiting hand. He had been dead for a long, long time.

 

Sarah stared down at the fragile thing in her hand. She didn’t cry. It took all of her will, but she would not cry. Worms don’t live as long as people, even magical talking Worms that wear scarves and drink tea with their wives. It must have been his time. She carefully tucked the little body back into its home and stood up purposefully. She crossed the passageway to the hidden opening.

 

This time, she took the left-hand path.

 

\---

 

This path was different. There were no guards at the doors, no false alarms, no pits leading to oubliettes and broken hips. It didn’t sparkle. It looked like the service access hall at the theatre she used to work at, if the theatre had been made of weathered brick and tangled rose vines. Sometimes when the walls had crumbled far enough she caught glimpses of places she knew. For a brief but too-long moment the whiff of the Bog of Eternal Stench made her regret bringing a cheese sandwich with her. She kept walking, knowing that she had to save Toby. 

 

The passage came to an abrupt end. One moment she was trailing her fingers along the brick, the next moment there was empty space at her fingertips. The misshapen hulk of the castle rose, surrounded by the walls she knew protected the Goblin City. She had expected to find herself in the garbage heap, climbing over childhood memories and junk.

 

What she found was a graveyard.

 

_ Here lies Stickles, determined projectile and fearless father. He never missed. We will miss him. _

 

_ Here lies Humongous. He gave his life to protect the Goblin City.  _

 

_ Here lies Ambrosius, faithful steed and beloved coward, who died of a broken heart. _

 

Sarah reread the stone carefully. Surely it couldn’t be. That must mean… She looked around wildly.

 

_ Here lies Sir Didymus, bravest knight of the Labyrinth. He didn’t know how to retreat. _

 

Sarah couldn’t stop her tears then. She reached out to the stone, brushing her fingers across the words as if to erase them.

 

“Ludo lose brother.” 

 

His fur was tinged with grey, but then so was her hair. Sarah stumbled blindly towards the beast and collapsed against him, sobbing.

 

“Oh Ludo, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She buried her face in his fur, and he patted her back gently, just as he had done when she was a girl. “What happened?”

 

“Brother fought. Brother lost. Brother died.”

 

“He made another vow to protect a bridge.” The sound of Hoggle’s voice startled her. “This time it was the bridge that led from the centre of the City to the farms beyond the garbage heap. He swore he wouldn’t let anyone cross until his lady returned to guide him. You, in other words. The goblins got tired of having to swim to work every morning, so the soldiers dealt with him. It didn’t take very long.”

 

“I didn’t make that choice, Hoggle. Sir Didymus did.” Sarah’s voice was low but strong. She’d spent months in therapy, wondering whether her brother’s destructive behaviour had been her fault. She  _ knew _ with absolute certainty that this wasn’t her doing any more than Toby’s drinking had been. It couldn’t have been.

 

“Did he?”

 

Sharp. Accusatory. As brittle as Mr Worm’s empty husk. Sarah looked up from the sanctuary of Ludo’s arms to Hoggle’s expressionless face.

 

“Of course he did.” Less certain now, she walked slowly to kneel in front of the dwarf. Putting her hands on his shoulders, she asked him, “Who else could have made that decision?”

 

“Jareth changed this world to make it live up to your expectations. He changed us. That didn’t stop after you left. No-one else ever defeated him. He left us like this out of respect for you. The rules here are your rules, and you believe that people don’t ever really change. You believe that Sir Didymus was a fool, and so he had to behave like one even when he knew better. You believe that he only listened to ladies, and you were the only lady he ever knew. Without you to direct him, he had no choice. You could have left him in the Bog of Eternal Stench. He was safe to be an idiot there. Instead you brought him here. And now he’s dead.”

 

Sarah rocked back on her heels. “You really believe that, don’t you?” she asked softly. “You honestly believe that I expected the people who saved my life and helped me save my brother to be so stupid that they’d get themselves killed because I wasn’t here. This is why you’re so mad at me.”

 

“I’m mad at you for leaving and not keeping your promise. You needed us as much as we needed you, but you never called, and you never even wondered if we were okay. I saw you, remember?” Hoggle wouldn’t look at her. He shrugged Sarah’s hands off and crossed his arms in front of him.

 

“Hoggle, if you were really watching me every day, you know what I’ve been doing. The problems I had weren’t the kind of problems you could have helped me with. And Jareth never gave me a way to see what you were doing. That’s not how things work in my world.” She gently took his face in her hands and turned him to look at her. He reminded her of Molly and Jessie, stubbornly refusing to admit that he might have misinterpreted something. “I can’t tell you how much I wish Sir Didymus was standing here talking to us right now. I have missed you all so much, but I had no idea what was going to happen.”

 

\---

 

Sarah sat and talked with her friends, remembering Sir Didymus and Ambrosius. She gave Hoggle her cheese sandwiches, unable to bear the reminder of the Bog of Eternal Stench. And she gave Ludo her knife in case he ever found himself tied up by goblins again. And then she said goodbye to her friends, because she had to confront Jareth alone, because that is how such things must be done. 

 

She walked through the back gates. There was no army waiting for her, no metal monster assembled from the heaps of scrap metal. She had already defeated them. She put on her hat.. It was ancient, a cap of red and white stripes that had always made her feel like a powerful sorceress. She put down her bag before she approached the castle. She ached from head to toe after walking for so long and sitting on the stony ground, and there was no point carrying the bag any longer. Steeling herself, she pushed open the doors to the castle

 

The throne room was shabbier than she’d remembered, scattered with rags and scraps and chicken bones. Jareth, however, looked just as he had in her memory, fey and dangerous and faintly amused.

 

“Hello, Sarah.” The Goblin King rose gracefully from his throne. She hadn’t thought he was really that tall, that her memory had been faulty. He really was that tall. “I was wondering when you’d finally get here.”

 

“Can we skip this part?” she asked sardonically. “I’ve come for Toby. We both know the only power you have over me is the power I let you have, so just give him back and I’ll be on my way.”

 

Jareth tutted. “You know that’s not how it works, Sarah.” He strolled around her, fingers tracing the lines of her shoulders.  


 

Sarah blurted, “What do you mean?” She couldn’t have come all this way for nothing.

 

“You didn’t wish for me to take this child away. Your nephew did. He’s the only one who can undo this and take the baby home.”

 

Sarah blinked. He watched her carefully, and she studied his face just as closely. Words had power here, and she knew that Jareth meant exactly what he said - exactly that and nothing more.

 

“Undo it…  _ and _ take the baby home?” Was that a hint of a smile on his face? “Michael could do both, but I can only do one or the other?”

 

“Clever girl.”

 

She snorted. “I haven’t been a girl in a very long time, though I appreciate the sentiment. Toby has to go home. What’s that going to cost me this time?”

 

“Nothing more than your freedom,” he replied. “This time you’ll have to stay here in his place. A life for a life.”

 

“Done,” Sarah said firmly.

 

“Be certain, Sarah,” he admonished, pulling a crystal from his voluminous sleeve. “Look at what you’ll be sacrificing. Molly. Jessie. Michael. Your whole world.” Glimpses of her loved ones appeared in the glittering bauble as it rippled along his graceful hands and she hesitated, doubting whether it was the right decision.

 

It was the image of Michael’s tear-streaked face that decided her. “I’m certain. It wasn’t like I had long left to live anyway. Send him back. I’ll stay and turn into a goblin or whatever it is you wanted him for.”

 

The Goblin King chuckled. “I never wanted to turn you into a goblin, Sarah. This place is bound by rules and expectations. Yours always surprised me. Even now you surprise me, and that is why I’ve always wanted you here.” He took her hand and began to lead her deeper into the castle, but she balked.

 

“Wait! What about Toby?”

 

“I’ve sent him back, of course.” He held the crystal up to her face. Michael’s was no less tear-streaked, but he held his son tightly against his chest, rocking him back and forth and laughing.

 

Sarah reached up and took the crystal from him. She followed him unconsciously, still looking at her nephew and great-nephew as Jareth led her onwards. “May I keep this?” she asked, finally tearing her gaze from her family to the man standing in front of her.

 

“Of course, my dear. What’s mine is yours. But for now, I’d like you to dance with me. You ran away from the ball the last time you were here. I half thought you’d confused your own story with Cinderella’s.” He held out his hands to her, and she laughed bitterly.

 

“I’m old, Jareth. It’s all I can do to keep up with you. I think you’d rather keep the memory of the last time rather than having me stepping on your feet now.” Sarah turned away from him, not wanting him to see the pain on her face. The few moments she’d spent in his arms were among her happiest memories, and she didn’t want to spoil them for herself, either.

 

“Dance with me, Sarah. Now.” An unmistakable command this time. 

 

“Didn’t we already establish the fact that you can’t tell me what to do?” she responded, defiance plain in her voice. She crossed her arms, unconsciously mimicking Hoggle’s sullen posture.

 

“Didn’t we already establish that you’re part of this world now? Besides, you want to dance with me, so badly it’s almost making you hurt. And I did promise to give you everything you wanted if you’d be ruled by me.”

 

And so Sarah found herself held in the Goblin King’s arms, spinning in time to unearthly music. She felt as spellbound then as she had as a young girl despite her best efforts to pull away from him. She noticed as they danced that it came more easily to her, as though her feet had forgotten the long road and remembered this instead. And when she finally managed to tear her eyes from his, her hands had become smooth and soft. A girl’s hands. She raised one from his shoulder to her cheek and felt the same unlined skin. 

 

She turned back to him in wonder. “I didn’t ask you for this.”

 

“No. But you believe I have the power to make you young again, and so I have. Consider it a reward for your sacrifice.” He held her tighter as she tried to pull away from him. “Dance with me, Sarah. You’ll be able to watch Toby’s children and grandchildren grow up, because you’ll never age here. All I ask is that you dance with me.”

 


End file.
